Bob Baker coached Byron to its only state team wrestling title, but he didn't teach his sons everything they know.

"We revolve around wrestling and it brings us closer as a family," Nelson Baker (38-0 as a senior at 120 pounds) said, "but it's not just our family. People all around us have helped."

Randall Sealby, whose son Ross is 37-2 at 220 pounds for Byron, may have helped the most when he hosted a meeting several years ago about starting a Greco-Roman and freestyle club in the summer.

"That was the best thing that could ever happen to us," said Nolan Baker (39-5 as a freshman at 113 pounds), who soon gave up baseball to become a full-time wrestler. "My dad hadn't done that before either, but it makes you a better wrestler and teaches you better hips. My brother took off after that."

Wrestling suddenly became a year-round life for the Bakers, which meant even more successful wrestlers and a house that hasn't changed.

"I knew they would do wrestling during the winter season," their mom, Sherri Baker, said, "but I didn't see the Greco and freestyle stuff coming. I didn't even know that existed. That meeting with Randall Sealby changed our lives. Baseball ended and freestyle and Greco got rolling.

"Every year, I've got home improvement projects, but they go to wrestling. Nolan was invited to the team wrestling nationals in Virginia Beach and Daytona Beach last year, and our flooring budget went to that. One day, I will get new flooring on the main level of our house."

And one day - perhaps Saturday - Byron will have its first-ever two-time state wrestling champ.

Nelson Baker was a surprise state champ as a sophomore. He upset the No. 1-ranked Class 1A 113-pounder 9-6 in the first round, then won 7-4 in the second round and had pins in the semifinals and finals. "Our hopes weren't to win the state title, but after he upset that kid in the first round, things steamrolled," his dad said.

Baker and Jarid Braunagel of Belleville Althoff (36-0) are the two favorites at 120 pounds in this year's state tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday in Champaign.

"I think Nelson can definitely do it, and I think I can do it when I get older, if not now," Nolan said. "That's always been the goal since we were younger. Hopefully, we can make it come true."

Family ties

Bob Baker stepped down as Byron's coach in 2004 after a 10-year record of 210-36 and five trips to the team state dual tournament because he wanted to coach his sons. He founded Xtreme wrestling with Steve Stender, a former head coach and state champion from Stillman Valley. Two coaches from Oregon also played key roles.

Page 2 of 3 - "Steve was going to start a club and I was going to start a club and we said, 'Why don't we do this together?' I joined forces with him," Bob Baker said.

After six or seven years, Xtreme looked like it would fold. "Where am I going to take my boys?" Baker wondered.

The answer was a new program with the same name under the Byron Park District.

"Because the program changed face rather than die, we didn't fire it up as a smaller elite club, but as a general park district club," Bob Baker said.

Rich Wilsie, father of 106-pound sectional champ Brady Wilsie, now runs Xtreme while Bob Baker, a sixth-grade writing teacher, has moved on to coach Byron's middle school program. The Bakers credit all of the Xtreme coaches, as well as Gene Lee and other coaches at Alpha Wrestling Academy in Rockford and Team Illinois coaches, for their success.

"There is a wealth of people who have contributed," Bob Baker said.

Baker vs. Baker

No one, though, contributes as much as the three Bakers. Steel sharpens steel and Baker sharpens Baker.

"It's great to have a wrestling partner that I can work out with at home and at practice," older brother Nelson said. "He is working to beat me and all of the stuff that I have done, and I encourage him to beat me in everything."

"I am not at that point yet," Nolan said, "but I am getting closer. And it's made me better that I can't beat him yet."

Nelson knows that feeling with his dad.

"We go at it all the time," Nelson said. "He still gets the better of me, but I'm getting closer."

There is no tension with the younger Bakers going 0-for-a-lifetime trying to beat an older Baker.

"There was some when I was younger," Nolan said, "but the only goal we have when we wrestle now is to get better, not to fight."

On the road

And they wrestle. A lot. Both have been freestyle and Greco-Roman All-Americans in Fargo and Wyoming. Nelson wrestled for Team Illinois in Indianapolis, Virginia Beach and Daytona Beach. When they were younger, they wrestled in two Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation tournaments almost every weekend, one on a Saturday and another on a Sunday.

"We are on the mat far more in the offseason than in the high school season," Bob Baker said.

"Wrestling not only binds my sons and myself together, my wife is a part of it too. Sherri goes everywhere we go. People say, 'Don't you wrestle too much?' But everywhere we go, we go as a family.

Page 3 of 3 - "I'm doing what I like. They are doing what they like. And my wife is always with us. It's been a great thing for our entire family."

"We're about as invested," Nolan Baker said, "as you can possibly be in wrestling."